Studio ST Architects

05/07/2026

Renovations always need to contend with the past, the existing building, the sensibilities of past generations. Sometimes this is challenging but it is always fascinating balance between respecting the original and yet making it new and responsive to our 21st century needs. When the building is a great work of architecture this needs to be done with a balance of humility and courage, respect and visions. Rabbi Kook said “The old should be renews and the new should be sanctified” (in Hebrew it rhymes הישן יתחדש והחדש יתקדש)

01/12/2026

1stdibs featured a townhouse we designed. Check it out!

September 7, 2025“It’s like the West Village of the Upper East Side,” designer Alyssa Kapito says of New York’s Carnegie Hill, where she recently reimagined an 1899 townhouse for a family. Beyond its enduring draws — the Guggenheim, the Cooper Hewitt, block after block of neatly aligned Qu...

05/19/2025

Design studies for a kitchen renovation with Maggie Rosenblatt Design. Renderings by Oaki.studio.

03/05/2025

Sneak peek of a beautiful townhouse renovation we did with Alyssa Kapito Interiors photographed by Stephen K Johnson.

01/13/2025

We renovated of the 14th Street Y, which is part of the JCC network of community centers, back in 2010. The design celebrates the diversity of its multi-generational, multi-ethnic membership. The ground floor lobby, fitness center, locker rooms, offices, showers and pool were redesigned as a series of parallel bands, each with its own identity. As members move through the different bands, they experience the simultaneous happenings that animate the building. By using off-the-shelf, low cost materials in unconventional ways, the architects created a unique design within a tight budget. Fields of fluorescent light fixtures of different sizes redraw the ceiling, while bands of colored tiles reconfigure the floor plane. The new entrance lobby has a custom gradient patterned tile floor, a field of circular fluorescent lights, and bright yellow 100% recycled plastic lounge furniture. The overall effect is raw, fresh and befitting the 14th Street Y Community Center’s location in the East Village in New York. The renovation was completed on time and on budget over one summer.

with Z-A Studio
Photography: Bilyana Dimitrova

01/03/2025

Safe, but Not Like a Bunker': Synagogue Renovations Breathing New Life Into Diaspora Communities
Great story in Haaretz by Bridget Goldberg about synagogue renovations featuring a few of our project.

"...This trend for redesigning existing synagogues stems from the growing awareness that the construction industry's heavy use of resources is a major contributor to climate change.

However, it is not only about revitalizing buildings but also revitalizing Jewish life.

New York architect Esther Sperber, an Israeli who has lived in the United States for 25 years, has drawn up numerous synagogue renovations across the country. With her firm Studio ST Architects, she renovated Chicago's Skokie Valley Synagogue last year – transforming a dated and dark 1960s structure into a light-filled, contemporary building.

That project features brick walls repainted with white limewash, a brighter entryway and coatroom, new bathrooms and lighter interiors thanks to added skylights and improved lighting. By rotating the seating arrangement, a redesigned worship area lets those in the Modern Orthodox shul be closer to the rabbi or cantor and also allows them to face east toward Jerusalem.

For Sperber, aesthetics and ethics are intertwined with her synagogue renovations that prioritize making older people and younger generations feel comfortable and welcome through resourceful design.
..The architect explains that one of the main motivations the community had "was to create a new, bigger lobby and create spaces that were bright, air-conditioned and accessible to those with disabilities. It's about safety as much as dignity."

The synagogue now doubles as a community center and accommodates bar-mitzvah luncheons, lectures and even gymnastics in its new social hall, she says. She notes that "social hall" is a typical term, since sanctuaries are for the religious ceremonies and halls for events.

The architect explains that one of the main motivations the community had "was to create a new, bigger lobby and create spaces that were bright, air-conditioned and accessible to those with disabilities. It's about safety as much as dignity."

The synagogue now doubles as a community center and accommodates bar-mitzvah luncheons, lectures and even gymnastics in its new social hall, she says. She notes that "social hall" is a typical term, since sanctuaries are for the religious ceremonies and halls for events.

She also upgraded the building's security at Ansche Chesed with a new security guard booth and lockdown system. "It's important for the congregation to feel safe, but you also don't want it to feel like a bunker," she says. "The challenge is to do the things that need to be done so people are safe, but not make it feel like a fortress."

12/16/2024

Cold weather bring to mind fireplaces.